PHOENIX (AP) – According to e-mails and letters, Arizonans overwhelmingly support a plan to expand state benefits to domestic partners of state employees.

Roughly 1,400 e-mails, letters and faxes have been received by the Arizona Department of Administration.

Department spokesman Alan Ecker called it an extraordinary amount of comment that was received by the agency during a 30-day window allowed for public response to the proposal.

Under the proposal, state employees with domestic partners, gay or straight, could claim the same benefits as married couples. The biggest benefit among those perks is coverage under the state health plan.

Many letters received by the state agency came from longtime gay and lesbian couples.

“My partner of over 20 years, who received her master’s degree from the U of A in December 2004, has been without health insurance since graduation,” wrote Beverly Seckinger, a Tucson resident and faculty member at the University of Arizona.

“We have exhaustively explored the available options and discovered that, at present, we are not able to afford private health insurance for her.”

Department of Administration Director William Bell proposed the benefits expansion in November.

It has the backing of Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Those opposed include social conservatives, led by the Center for Arizona Policy.

Opponents say it’s a threat to traditional marriage between one man and one woman. Others question the budgetary impact at a time when the state is facing a string of years with billion-dollar shortfalls.

Vittoria Giovannucci of Peoria calls the benefits expansion fiscally irresponsible and most likely illegal. “Increasing benefits at a time when the state of Arizona faces nearly a $1 billion shortfall flies in the face of fiscal responsibility,” Giovannucci wrote.

The benefits-expansion proposal will next be presented to the Governor’s Regulatory Review Council, a six-member board appointed by Napolitano. The hearing, which will allow public testimony, will likely occur in March or April. If approved, the change would take effect Oct. 1.

PONCE DE LEON, Fla. (AP) – The American Civil Liberties Union claims a Florida Panhandle school kept students from having rainbow stickers on their notebooks, suppressing their right to free speech.

A lawsuit against Ponce de Leon High School was filed Thursday in federal court.

A message was left with the school’s administration.

The ACLU says the school told them any form of expression in support for gay rights would “likely be disruptive.” It also claims the school board’s attorney said a rainbow sticker could mean students are members of an “illegal organization.”

In the complaint, the ACLU asks the court for an injunction to stop the school from further suppressing the First Amendment rights of the students.

BOSTON (AP) – A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Lexington parents who objected to same-sex families being discussed in their children’s elementary school classrooms.

Tonia and David Parker of Lexington sued school officials in April 2006 after their son brought home a book from kindergarten that depicted a gay family. Joseph and Robin Wirthlin joined the suit after a second-grade teacher read the class a story about two princes falling in love.

In a ruling Thursday, the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a judge who ruled in February 2007 that parents’ rights to exercise their religious beliefs are not violated when their children are exposed to contrary ideas in school.

“Public schools are not obliged to shield individual students from ideas which potentially are religiously offensive, particularly when the school imposes no requirement that the student agree with or affirm those ideas, or even participate in discussions about them,” the court said in its ruling.

Jeffrey Denner, an attorney for the parents, said they were disappointed with the ruling and are considering appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Normally, when kids are taught certain things, they believe it to come from on high,” Denner said. “I think this influences the way they think in very, very direct ways and becomes functionally indoctrinating to them.”

ROCHESTER, New York (AP) – An appeals court has ruled that a gay couple’s marriage in Canada should be recognized in New York state.

The ruling could put New York on the path to joining New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey in recognizing same-sex civil unions that guarantee medical benefits and legal rights. Massachusetts is the only U.S. state that allows same-sex marriage.

The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court on Friday reversed a judge’s ruling in 2006 that Monroe Community College did not have to extend health benefits to an employee’s lesbian partner.

Patricia Martinez, a word processing supervisor, sued the school in 2005, arguing that it granted benefits to heterosexual married couples but denied them to Martinez and her partner, Lisa Ann Golden.

The couple formalized their relationship in a civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2001 and were married in Canada in 2004.

The college refused to add Golden to the health care benefits because its contract with the Civil Service Employees Association did not address benefits for same-sex partners. Since then, the contract has been enhanced to extend benefits to an employee’s domestic partner.

State Supreme Court Justice Harold Galloway dismissed Martinez’s lawsuit in August 2006, saying that the state does not recognize same-sex marriages. The state Legislature “currently defines marriage as limited to the union of one man and one woman,” he wrote.

The appellate judges disagreed, determining that there is no legal impediment in New York to the recognition of a same-sex marriage.

The state Legislature “may decide to prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages solemnized abroad,” the ruling said. “Until it does so, however, such marriages are entitled to recognition in New York.”

The New York Civil Liberties Union called Friday’s ruling a victory for families, justice and human rights.

“Congratulations to all same-sex couples validly married outside of New York state,” said Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “Now we need to work toward a New York where you don’t have to cross state or country lines to get married.”

PITTSBURGH (AP) – A dozen rectors and priests in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh are opposed to a move by their bishop to bolt the national church for a more conservative alignment.

In a letter to Bishop Robert Duncan, the church leaders outlined their opposition to removing the diocese’s 66 churches from the national Episcopal Church.

The disputes are over the national church’s support for ordaining gay clergy and same-sex marriages.

The rectors and priests who signed the letter say they do not support these moves, but do not want to realign outside the church.

In November, the Pittsburgh diocese overwhelmingly voted to leave the church, making the future of parish properties, pensions and missions uncertain. A second vote this year would make the move final.

SEATTLE (AP) – A recent rash of hate crimes on Capitol Hill and other Seattle neighborhoods has led the King County prosecutor to work with community activists to launch a new anti-harassment campaign that urges potential victims to call 9-1-1 and avoid confrontation.

“It’s a lot to ask people not to engage,” said Mike Hogan, a senior deputy prosecutor who handles the department’s malicious-harassment cases, which are what this state calls hate crimes. “But we’re doing it so victims don’t end up going to Harborview” Medical Center.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg held a news conference to announce the campaign Friday, then prosecutors and volunteers from the Gay City Health Project and the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce hung posters at businesses.

The purple and yellow posters titled “Hate Crimes Alert” urge people to stay alert to their surroundings, travel in groups and call 9-1-1 immediately if they encounter bullying or harassment.

Satterberg said his office is working with Seattle police to produce a training video that will help officers gather information after a hate crime.

Hogan said he prosecuted 14 malicious-harassment cases in the past year, all of which involved intoxicated people. In the most recent case, a man who had harassed a gay person in Pioneer Square was sentenced last week to 14 months in prison.

Hogan said it is unclear whether incidents of malicious harassment are actually increasing or whether awareness and reporting are on the rise, but it is clear that most of the recent attacks have happened at night and the attacks are happening late at night.

Fred Swanson, executive director of the Gay City Health Project, said there is a community perception that hate crimes have increased.

“What I’m hearing is guys feeling real fear walking around at night,” Swanson said.

By making the cases “high profile and showing a willingness to make examples of individuals,” Satterberg said he hopes to give would-be offenders reason to pause before acting.